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  • 3CX Announces 3CXPhone 4.0 – a Free Softphone in Smartphone Look

    3CX released a new version of its free VoIP softphone for Windows – 3CXPhone 4.0.

    3CXPhone is a free, SIP-based VoIP phone that allows to use any PC or laptop as a phone. Making calls to any VoIP, mobile or landline number is possible after connecting 3CXPhone to a VOIP provider or to a VoIP PBX. With 3CX Gateway for Skype users can also make and receive calls to Skype numbers.

    3CXPhone allows to choose from several popular phone interfaces (Nokia, iPhone), features multi-line capability (up to 3 lines), ability to transfer calls, calls to disk recording and works with Asterisk and popular VoIP providers.

    It supporst G.711, GSM, iLBC and Speex codecs as well as USB and Plantronics headsets and also features STUN support for NAT/firewall traversal.

    3CXPhone is provided completely free of charge to individuals and organizations including commercial entities (all features, including call transfer, are enabled).

    “The soft-phone is becoming a serious ‘IP phone option’ for businesses. They are easy to manage, save on electricity and administration,” said Nick Galea, 3CX CEO.

    “3CXPhone can easily be configured as a remote extension, allowing users away from the office to easily connect to the corporate phone system. The unique tunnel feature proxies all SIP & RTP traffic over a single port and makes firewall and NAT configuration a breeze. It is also possible to configure it as a remote extension using ‘direct SIP’,” he explained.

  • Skype Names David Gurle to Lead Skype for Business Team

    Skype today announced that it has hired David Gurle as the new General Manager and Vice President of its Skype for Business unit. He replaces Stefan Oberg, who will be leaving Skype in March 2010.

    David Gurle joins Skype from Thomson Reuters, where he served as its Global Head of Collaboration Services and Head of its largest business in Asia, the Sales & Trading Business Division.

    Prior to joining Thomson Reuters, he spent more than three years running Microsoft’s Real Time Communications business, a group that he founded. During this time, he oversaw the development of the company’s collaboration products including NetMeeting, Windows Messenger, Exchange IM, Exchange Conferencing Server, Live Communications Server and Office Communications Server, as well as Microsoft’s acquisition of PlaceWare.

    David Gurle

    Prior to Microsoft, he was Corporate Vice President, Business Alliances at VocalTec, the IP telephony pioneer, where he established and managed partnerships with a number of Tier I telecommunications service providers and hardware vendors, including Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and Marconi.

    He also spent time at ETSI, France Telecom and started his career at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). David has also co-authored a number of books on VoIP and IP Telephony.

    He graduated ESIGETEL with a Masters of Science degree in Computer Science and Telecommunications.

    "Since its inception, Skype has been used by many entrepreneurs and small businesses to save money on their communications," said David Gurle.

    "Moving forward, our goal is to educate and attract larger organizations that can not only save money by using Skype to communicate, but also increase their organizational productivity and enhance the way they interact with customers around the globe."

  • Acrobits Provides Three New SIP VoIP Operators with the iPhone Apps

    Acrobits, a Czech Republic-based mobile software development company, has just released their latest white label clients for the iPhone: PLFon, TeleSIP and sipcall.

    This comes on the heels of their recent announcement to put renewed focus on creating white label softphones for the iPhone. These SIP VoIP providers are now on even footing with the VoIP giants that already have their own softphone applications on the iPhone.

    The white label clients give the providers access to iPhone customers they might not reach otherwise. Though Acrobits Softphone is compatible with virtually any SIP provider, some customers are more likely to use a provider that has their own softphone.

    “While techies love plaving with different softphones and comparing VoIP operators, your average VoIP user is going to do most of their calling through one provider. Having your own iPhone Softphone application brings you one step closer to convincing customers to give your service a try, rather than one of the other hundreds of VoIP operators that are out there,” says Acrobits.

    Acrobits Softphone, the SIP VoIP phone for the iPhone and iPod Touch, is the flagship product of our company, which is also planning to support Symbian and Windows Mobile phones in the near future.

    Acrobits is already working on Softphone clients for other VoIP operators, including Gizmo5.

    “VoIP service is a highly competitive industry and VoIP usage on mobile devices, especially the iPhone, will play a large part in deciding who tomorrow’s leading VoIP providers are,” says Acrobits.

  • More than Half of Consumers Utilize Mobile Phones for In-Store Holiday Shopping Activities

    A recent Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions annual research study of holiday shoppers identified that more than half (51 percent) of consumers across 11 countries used their mobile phones for in-store activities such as comparison shopping and getting peer feedback, product information and coupons.

    Motorola’s analysts think it signals the increasing importance for retailers to adopt mobile shopper technology strategies to remain competitive.

    According to the study, the usage and impact of mobile shopping technologies exploded during the 2009 holiday shopping season. The survey identified that 64 percent of Gen Y (age 18 to 34) shoppers used their mobile phones for in-store shopping-related activities during the holiday season.

    “Retailers, financial service institutions, advertisers and technology vendors are taking advantage of mobile platforms to attract this increasingly technologically savvy generation of shoppers,” says Motorola.

    The company also says all surveyed age-segments cited interest in next-generation retail technologies, 2demonstrating the growing consumer demand for real-time information to make better informed shopping decisions.”

    The research shows that when in-store associates were equipped with mobile technologies, such as two-way radios and handheld mobile computers, surveyed shoppers reported a better experience due to the use of the devices (59 percent and 56 percent respectively).

    Frank Riso, senior director of retail solutions, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions, said, “By utilizing mobile technologies, consumers have become empowered, better informed and more critical shoppers. Retailers need to establish near-term strategies to provide product information, stock availability, discounts and coupons directly to shoppers to help them to remain competitive.”

  • iSuppli: Nexus One Serves as Research Tool for Google

    Google’s new Nexus One smart phone serves as a showcase for the latest version of the Android operating system and will allow the company to gather critical user data for developing new software, according to iSuppli.

    "With a plethora of smart phones based on the Android operating system already on the market, questions have arisen as to why Google would begin selling its own phone equipped with the operating system," said Tina Teng, iSuppli senior analyst for wireless communications.

    "iSuppli believes the Nexus One allows Google to demonstrate all the capabilities of its operating system more effectively than other phones that employ customized versions of Android. The Nexus One also gives Google direct access to end customers, yielding key information on how users interact with applications and utilize data."

    Such information will be pivotal as Android-based phones strive to gain market share in the burgeoning smart phone market. iSuppli predicts global smart phone shipments are set to rise considerably, more than doubling from 181 million in 2009 to 439 million in 2013.

    According to iSuppli, with Google having directed the entire design of the Nexus One, including the hardware, applications and operating system, the phone exemplifies all the capabilities of version 2.1 of Android.

    In contrast, other Android-based phones, such as Motorola’s Droid, have personalized the operating system to suit their own hardware designs and services.

    "The Nexus One will help Google popularize Android by showing what the operating system can really do," Teng said.

    Beyond serving as a technology demonstrator for Android, the Nexus One gives Google direct access to consumers’ use patterns.

    Teng said Google can embed an applet into the Nexus One that can send reports on user behaviors back to a company database for analysis.

    iSuppli believes the Nexus One is a compelling device in terms of functions and capabilities. However, the product will still face significant competitive challenges.

    "Google will have to bundle innovative software with the Nexus One to combat its strongest competitor: Apple’s iPhone," Teng said.

  • Panasonic Develops World's Largest 152-Inch Full HD 3D Plasma

    Panasonic annonced that it has developed the world’s largest 152-inch 4K x 2K (4,096 x 2,160 pixels) definition Full HD 3D plasma display. The display features a new plasma display panel (PDP) Panasonic developed with its new quadruple luminous efficiency technology.

    According to Panasonic, self-illuminating plasma panels offer "excellent" response to moving images with full motion picture resolution, making them suitable for rapid 3D image display.

    The company claims the new panel achieves a higher illuminating speed, about one fourth the speed of conventional Full HD panels.

    The panel also incorporates a crosstalk reduction technology, essential for producing clear 3D images. Compared to other display technologies that use line-at-a-time driving method, PDPs use frame-at-a-time driving method that gives PDP TVs an advantage in crosstalk reduction in principle.

    Panasonic has developed this technology to minimize double-image that occurs when left- and right-eye images are switched alternately. The development has resulted in the 3D compatible plasma display that can render clear and smooth high-quality pictures by accurately reproducing video sources.

    (photo Gizmodo)

    “The new 152-inch panel also uses a new technology that enables even and stable discharge,” as the company states.

    “Thanks to this discharge technology, the new panel can provide full HD images for left and right eyes formed with twice the volume of information as regular full HD images across the vast expanse of the screen equivalent to nine 50-inch panels with super high resolution (4,096 x 2,160) – four times the full HD (1,920 x 1,080) specification – while maintaining the brightness.”

    Because 3D plasma displays can reproduce highly realistic images, they are considered ideal not only for home theater use but also for a wide variety of uses such as business, medical, education and commercial applications.

  • Digium and Aumtech Certify a Multi-Language Speech Recognition Server Solution with Asterisk

    Digium and Aumtech, Speech and Computer Telephony Integration company, announced a partner relationship between the companies.

    According to them, Asterisk users now have a high-quality, low-cost Speech alternative, featuring server-based licenses that support 48+ ports of Automated Speech Recognition for less than the cost of one or two competitive ASR licenses.

    Aumtech’s solution provides 48+ ports of multi-language speech recognition for the Asterisk platform with support for $1,975 per port.

    The firm is introducing its Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) Connector utility, which enables Asterisk customers to access the high-quality Microsoft Speech Services 2007 ASR for a fraction of the cost of competitors’ ASR engines, as the company claims.

    This includes unlimited grammars and multiple languages of ASR. Aumtech says the list of 14 available languages and voices is constantly growing, and there are successful installations in North America, South America, Europe and the Far East.

    Asterisk users can access this speech solution on Asterisk and on a variety of Interactive Voice Response solutions, including Aumtech’s VoiceXML 2.1 Certified IVR platform, or other standards-based IVR platforms.

    The Aumtech MRCP Connector for the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Speech Server allows companies using Linux to build speech-driven applications with the Microsoft ASR product.

    Since the MRCP Connector is based on the WC3 Forum’s open standard, applications running on open platforms such as Asterisk can access Microsoft’s Speech Recognition functions through Aumtech’s Connector. Existing Speech applications are also candidates for deployment on this solution, since industry standards ensure code portability.

    Bill Miller, Digium’s vice president of product management, said, “Our Asterisk customers have long recognized the value of Speech Recognition applications; however, most have delayed implementing these technologies due to the high entry costs. Aumtech’s solution is the lowest-cost at higher capacities for world-class Speech technology and may prove to be the ‘tipping point,’ finally bringing speech to the masses, and will benefit our customers worldwide.”

    Digium is the creator, sponsor and driving force behind Asterisk, the most widely used open source telephony software. The company’s software and hardware products enable businesses to implement turnkey unified communications solutions or to design their own VoIP systems.

    Aumtech is the Automatic Speech Recognition systems provider for large enterprises, governments, and global carriers. Its innovations include the first SIP-based IVR, Automated Outbound IVR Notification, and a standalone CTI product, called ESP (“Economical Screen Pop”).

  • CloudBerry Backup Lets Users Back up Windows Home Server to Amazon S3

    CloudBerry Lab has released CloudBerry Backup version 1.3 – an application that allows users to backup their data online to their Amazon S3 accounts.

    CloudBerry Backup is also available as a Windows Home Server add-on. It integrates with the WHS console and offers scheduled backup to cloud storage, hosted on Amazon S3.

    According to the company’s announcement, newer version features full support for Windows Home Server Drive Extender that lets users seamlessly increase disk storage by adding new drives. These do not appear as new drive letters, but simply increase the available space.

    Backup Window is a new feature of the scheduler that help specify for how long backup job should run so that it for example only runs during the night time while not impacting users computer performance and network bandwidth in the day time.

    Besides, there is an improved support for the operations involving Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service.

    CloudBerry Backup works on Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7. Command line interface allows partners and advanced computer users integrate backup and restore plans with other routines.

    A single-user license for CloudBerry S3 Backup 1.3 for Windows costs $29.99. It will be offered without charge to students, educational institutions and non-profit organizations.

    CloudBerry Lab was established in 2008 by a group of IT professionals with the mission to help organizations in adopting Cloud computing technologies “by closing the gap between Cloud vendor propositions and consumer needs through development of innovative low-costs solutions.”

  • Discovery, Sony and IMAX to Launch 24/7 3D Television Network in the U.S.

    Discovery Communications, Sony and IMAX announced a joint venture to be established to develop the first 24/7 dedicated 3D television network in the U.S.

    Discovery, Sony, through its U.S. affiliate, Sony Corporation of America, and IMAX each will be equal partners in the joint venture. According to the companies, it will be launched in the U.S., with a goal of “driving consumer adoption of 3D televisions and giving the network long-term leadership in the 3D home marketplace.” In the future, the companies also will explore international distribution opportunities in selected markets.

    The new 3D network will feature content from genres that are “most appealing” in 3D, including natural history, space, exploration, adventure, engineering, science and technology, motion pictures and children’s programming from Discovery, Sony Pictures Entertainment, IMAX and other third-party providers.

    Discovery will provide network services, including affiliate sales and technical support functions, as well as 3D television rights to Discovery content and cross-promotion across its portfolio of 13 U.S. television networks.

    Sony will provide advertising/sponsorship sales support, and will seek to license television rights to current and future 3D feature films, music-related 3D content and game-related 3D content, while providing cross-promotion at retail stores.

    IMAX also will license television rights to future 3D films, promotion through its owned-and-operated movie theaters across the U.S., and a suite of proprietary and patented image enhancement and 3D technologies.

    Governance for the joint venture will be handled by a board of directors comprised of members from each of the three companies, with the day-to-day operations run by a separate staff and management team that will report to the board.

    The parties informed they have signed a non-binding Letter of Intent. Specific financial terms of the venture were not disclosed.

    “It is clear to us that consumers will always migrate to a better and richer entertainment experience, and together [with Discovery and IMAX] we are determined to be the leader in providing that around the world,” said Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman, CEO and President of Sony.

  • Google Officially Announces Nexus One – the “Superphone”

    At the special Android press conference in Mountain View, Google officially confirmed the company’s first phone – the Nexus One.

    This HTC-branded device is running Android 2.1 and comes with 3.7" AMOLED 480×800 WVGA display, 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, 512MB flash onboard memory and 4GB removable SD Card (expandable to 32GB), 5 megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash and geo tagging, stereo Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack, compass, GPS, accelerometer and light and proximity sensor.

    There is also an option of personalized laser engraving: up to 50 characters on the back of the phone.

    Android 2.1, a version of the platform’s Eclair software offers applications like Google Maps Navigation (offering turn-by-turn driving directions with voice output), Email (multiple Gmail accounts; universal inbox and Exchange support), Phone book (aggregate contacts from multiple sources, including Facebook), and Android Market with the access to more than 18,000 applications.

    Additionally, it futures voice-enabled keyboard for all text fields and voice-searching.

    Nexus One is initially available from the new Google web store in the US without service for $529 or starting at $179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile USA. It is also coming to Verizon this Spring and Vodafone later this year.

    Google will initially take orders from consumers in the US and three other markets – the UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

    In the coming months Google plans on partnering with additional operators. They also expect to launch more phones with Android handset partners (including Motorola) and to expand the web store to more countries.

    "The Nexus One belongs in the emerging class of devices which we call ‘superphones,’ with the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset making it as powerful as your laptop computer of three to four years ago. It’s our way to raise the bar on what’s possible when it comes to creating the best mobile experience for consumers," said Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering.